Speaker 1: World Beyond Pluto, a Johnny Mayhem adventure by C. H. Thames.
Speaker 1: They loaded the Overage spaceship at night because Triton's Won
Speaker 1: spaceport was too busy with the oarships from Neptune during
Speaker 1: the day to handle it. Symphonies, Pitchblen Hardesty groaned. Pitchblend
Speaker 1: Hardesty was the stevedor foreman, and he had supervised upwards
Speaker 1: of a thousand loadings on Triton's crowded blastways, everything from
Speaker 1: the standard mining equipment to the innards of a new
Speaker 1: tavern for Triton City's so called Street of Sin, to
Speaker 1: special anti riot weapons for the Interstellar Penitentiary, not fifty
Speaker 1: four miles from Triton City, but never a symphony orchestra,
Speaker 1: and most assuredly, never never an all girl symphony orchestra. Symphonies.
Speaker 1: Pitchbland Hardesty groaned again as several stevedors came out on
Speaker 1: the blast lugging a harp, a bass fiddle, and a
Speaker 1: kettle drum. I'm off at, Pitchbland, one of the stevedores said,
Speaker 1: with a grin. I didn't say you staying away from
Speaker 1: the music hall. That was true enough, Pitchbland Hardesty had
Speaker 1: to admit he was a small, wiry man with amazing
Speaker 1: strength in his slim body and the lore of a
Speaker 1: solar system which had been bypassed by thirtieth century civilization,
Speaker 1: for the lures of interstellar exploration in his brain. While
Speaker 1: the symphony, the All Girl Symphony, had been playing its
Speaker 1: engagement at Triton's makeshift music hall, Hardesty had visited the
Speaker 1: place three times. Well it wasn't the music sharis heck,
Speaker 1: he told his critic. Now, who ever saw a hundred
Speaker 1: girls in one place at one time? On Triton. The
Speaker 1: stevedor rolled his eyes and offered Pitchbland a suggestive whistle.
Speaker 1: Hardesty booted him in the rump, and the stevador had
Speaker 1: all he could do to stop from falling into the
Speaker 1: kettle drum. Just then, a loud bell set up a
Speaker 1: lonely tolling and pitch blend Hardest, he exclaimed, prison break.
Speaker 1: The bell could be heard all over the two hundred
Speaker 1: square miles of inhabitable Triton, under the glass site dome
Speaker 1: which enclosed the small city, the spaceport, the immigration station
Speaker 1: for nearby Neptune, and the interstellar penitentiary. The bell hadn't
Speaker 1: told for ten years. The last time it had told
Speaker 1: pitch Blend, Hardesty had been a newcomer on Neptune's Big Moon.
Speaker 1: That wasn't surprising, for Interstellar Penitentiary was as close to
Speaker 1: escape proof as a prison could be. All Right, all right,
Speaker 1: pitch Blenn snapped, hurry up and get r loaded. Wat's
Speaker 1: the rush, one of the stevadors asked. The gals ain't
Speaker 1: even arrived from the hotel yet. I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: the rush is, Pitchblend declared, as the bell told again.
Speaker 1: If you were an escape prisoner on Triton, just where
Speaker 1: would you head? Why? I don't know for sure, Pitchblend.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you where. You'd head for the spaceport, fast
Speaker 1: as your legs could carry you. You'd head for an
Speaker 1: outgoing spaceship because it would be your only hope. And
Speaker 1: how many outgoing spaceships are there to night? Why? Just
Speaker 1: two or three? Because all our business is in the daytime.
Speaker 1: So if the convict was smart enough to get out,
Speaker 1: he'll be smart enough to come here. We got no weapons,
Speaker 1: the stevedore said. We ain't even got a pea shooter
Speaker 1: weapons on Triton. You kidding a frontier moon like this,
Speaker 1: the place would be blasted apart every night. It' a
Speaker 1: steppin couldn't hold all the disturbers of the piece if
Speaker 1: we had o some guns. But the convict, yeah, Pitchblenn
Speaker 1: said grimly, he'll be armed, all right. Pitchblen rushed back
Speaker 1: to the manifest shed as the bell told a third time.
Speaker 1: He got on the phone and called the desk of
Speaker 1: the hotel Triton Hodesty over at the spaceport, he said,
Speaker 1: loading foreman, Loading foreman. The mild antiseptic voice at the
Speaker 1: other end of the connection said it as you would say,
Speaker 1: talking dinosaur. Yeah, loading foreman. At night. I'm in charge here.
Speaker 1: Listen you the manager. The manager haughtily is asleep. I
Speaker 1: am the night clerk. Okay, then you tell those hundred
Speaker 1: girls of years to hurry, don't scare them. But have
Speaker 1: you heard about the prison break? Heard about it? It's
Speaker 1: all I've been hearing. They they want to stay and
Speaker 1: see what happens. Don't let em, roared Pitchblend, use any
Speaker 1: excuse you have to tell him we got a centrifugal
Speaker 1: upagal and perhelian parathonitis over here at the spaceport or
Speaker 1: any dawn thing. Tell him if they want to blast
Speaker 1: off tonight, they'll have to get down here quick. You
Speaker 1: got it, yes, But then do it? Pitchpleann hung up.
Speaker 1: The escape bell tolled a fourth time. His name was
Speaker 1: house Bartok. He had killed two guards in his escape,
Speaker 1: and he was as desperate as a man could be.
Speaker 1: He had been sentenced to Interstellpin for killing a man
Speaker 1: on Mars in this enlightened age, when capital punishment had
Speaker 1: been abolished. Recapture thus wouldn't mean death, but the prison
Speaker 1: authorities at Interstellpin could make their own interpretation of what
Speaker 1: life in prison meant. If house Bartok allowed himself to
Speaker 1: be retaken, he would probably spend the remaining years of
Speaker 1: his life in solitary confinement. He walked quickly now, but
Speaker 1: he did not run. He had had an impulse to
Speaker 1: run when the first escape bell had told, but that
Speaker 1: would have been foolish. Already he was on the outskirts
Speaker 1: of Triton City because they had not discovered his escape
Speaker 1: for two precious hours. He could hole up in the
Speaker 1: city lose himself somewhere, but that would only be temporary.
Speaker 1: They would find him eventually. Or he could make his
Speaker 1: way to the spaceport. He had money in his pocket
Speaker 1: the dead guards. He had a guardsman's uniform on, but
Speaker 1: stripped of its insignia. It looked like the jumper and
Speaker 1: top boots of any spaceman. He had false identification papers
Speaker 1: if needed, which he had worked on for two years
Speaker 1: in the prison print shop where the prison newspaper was
Speaker 1: published he had. Suddenly, he flattened himself on the ground
Speaker 1: to one side of the road, hugging the gravel and
Speaker 1: hardly daring to breathe he heard a vehicle coming from
Speaker 1: the direction of Interstellpin. It roared up, making the ground vibrate.
Speaker 1: Its lights flashed, It streaked by, trailing a jet of
Speaker 1: fire house Bartok didn't move until the afterglow had faded.
Speaker 1: He got up and walked steadily along the road which
Speaker 1: led from Interstellpin to Triton City. Girls, hurry up with
Speaker 1: your packing, girls, sighing, Matilda Moriarty subsided. The girls obviously
Speaker 1: were in no hurry. That would have been out of character.
Speaker 1: Matilda Moriarty sighed again. She was short, stocky, fifty two
Speaker 1: years old and the widow of a fabulously wealthy interstellar
Speaker 1: investment broker. She had a passion for classical music, and
Speaker 1: now that her husband had been dead three years, she
Speaker 1: had decided to exercise that passion. But for Matilda Moriarty,
Speaker 1: a very outgoing fifty two, exercising it had meant passing it.
Speaker 1: On the outworlds, Matilda had told her friends lacked culture.
Speaker 1: The highest form of culture for Matilda was classical music.
Speaker 1: Very well, she would bring culture to the outworlds. Triton
Speaker 1: was her first try, and even now sometimes she had
Speaker 1: to pinch herself so she'd know the initial attempt had
Speaker 1: been a smashing success. She didn't delude herself completely. It
Speaker 1: had been a brainstorm selecting only girls, and pretty young
Speaker 1: girls at that for the Interstellar Symphony on a world
Speaker 1: like Triton, a world which played host to very few
Speaker 1: women and then usually to the hard types who turned
Speaker 1: up on any frontier in any century. A symphony of
Speaker 1: a hundred pretty girls was bound to be a success.
Speaker 1: But the music, Matilda Moriarty told herself, they had listened
Speaker 1: to the music. If they wanted to see the girls
Speaker 1: in their latest Earth style evening gowns, they had to
Speaker 1: listen to the music, and they had listened quietly, earnestly,
Speaker 1: apparently enjoying it. The symphony had remained on Triton longer
Speaker 1: than planned, playing every night to a full house. Matilda
Speaker 1: had had the devil's own time chaperoning her girls, but
Speaker 1: that was to be expected. It was their first taste
Speaker 1: of the outworlds. It was the outworld's first taste of them.
Speaker 1: The Widow Moriarty had had her hands full all right,
Speaker 1: but secretly she had enjoyed every minute of it. They
Speaker 1: say the bell means a prison break. The first violin
Speaker 1: squealed excitedly. First violin was twenty two, an earth girl
Speaker 1: named Jane Cummings and a student at the Conservatory on
Speaker 1: Certis Major on Mars. But to the Widow Moriarty, she
Speaker 1: was and would remain first violin. That way, calling the
Speaker 1: the girls after their instruments, the Widow Moriarty could convince
Speaker 1: herself that her symphonic music had been of prime importance
Speaker 1: on Triton, and her lovely young charges of secondary importance.
Speaker 1: How many times do I have to tell you to hurry?
Speaker 1: But these gowns will need a pressing when you return
Speaker 1: to Mars anyway, and a prison break I never saw
Speaker 1: a prison break before. It's so exciting. You are not
Speaker 1: going to see it. You're just going to hear about it.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on, all of you. At that moment,
Speaker 1: the room phone rang Hello. The widow Moriarty said, this
Speaker 1: is Jenkins, ma'am. Desk the spaceport called a few minutes ago.
Speaker 1: I'm not supposed to frighten you, but well, they're rather
Speaker 1: worried about the prison break. The escaped convict. They figure
Speaker 1: will head for the spaceport disguised. He could let him
Speaker 1: try masquerading as a member of my group. The widow
Speaker 1: Moriarty said, with a smile, all the same, if you
Speaker 1: could hurry, We are hurrying, young man. Yes, ma'am. The
Speaker 1: widow Moriarty hung up. Girls. The girls squealed and laughed
Speaker 1: and dawdled house. Bartalk felt like laughing. He had just
Speaker 1: had his first big break, and it might turn out
Speaker 1: to be the only one he needed. On an impulse,
Speaker 1: he had decided to strike out directly for the spaceport.
Speaker 1: He had done so, and now stood on the dark
Speaker 1: tarmac between the manifest shed and the pilot barracks, and
Speaker 1: not ten minutes after he had reached the spacefield, a
Speaker 1: cordon of guards rushed there from Interstelpin and had been
Speaker 1: stationed around the field. Had Bartalk arrived just a few
Speaker 1: minutes later, he would have been too late, his capture
Speaker 1: only a matter of time. As it was now the
Speaker 1: oh he had a very good chance of getting away.
Speaker 1: Circumstances were in his favor. He could get so far
Speaker 1: away that they would never find him. It was simple,
Speaker 1: get off Triton on a space ship, go any place
Speaker 1: that had a big spaceport, and managed to tranship out
Speaker 1: in secret. Then all the police would have to search
Speaker 1: would be a few quadrillion square miles of space. But
Speaker 1: first he had to leave Triton. From the activity at
Speaker 1: the port, he could see that three ships were being
Speaker 1: made ready for blast off. Two of them were purely
Speaker 1: cargo carriers, but the third, Bartak could tell because he
Speaker 1: saw hand luggage being loaded would carry passengers. His instinct
Speaker 1: for survival must have been working overtime. He knew that
Speaker 1: the third ship would be his best bet, for if
Speaker 1: he were discovered and pursued, hostages might make the difference
Speaker 1: between recapture and freedom. Bartok waited patiently in the darkness
Speaker 1: outside the pilot barracks. The only problem was how to
Speaker 1: discover which pilot belonged to which ship. The cordon of
Speaker 1: police from Interstelpin had set up several score arc lights
Speaker 1: on the perimeter of the field. The spaces between the
Speaker 1: lights were patrolled by guards armed, as Bartok was, with blasters.
Speaker 1: Bartok could never have made it through that cordon now,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't necessary. He was already inside the barracks.
Speaker 1: Door opened and a pilot came out. Tensing ready, Bartok
Speaker 1: watched him. The three ships were scattered widely on the field.
Speaker 1: Venus Bell to the north, Star of Hercules to the south,
Speaker 1: Mozart's Lady to the east. Venus Bell and Star of
Speaker 1: Hercules were straight cargo carriers. Mozart's Lady what a queer
Speaker 1: name for a spaceship. Bartok couldn't help thinking had taken
Speaker 1: in hand luggage. So if the pilot, who had just
Speaker 1: left the barracks headed east, Bartok would take him. The
Speaker 1: pilot paused outside, lit a cigarette, hummed a tune. The
Speaker 1: scent of tobacco drifted over to Bartalk. He waited. The
Speaker 1: pilot walked east toward Mozart's Lady. Ready Girls Ready, Missus
Speaker 1: Moriarty couldn't we well sort of hang around until we
Speaker 1: see what happens you mean the escaped convict. Yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: hopefully they'll catch him. They always catch them. But come on,
Speaker 1: oh gosh, missus Moriarty, I said, come on reluctantly. The
Speaker 1: hundred girls trooped with their chaperone from the hotel. Bartalk
Speaker 1: struck swiftly and without mercy ester would make too much noise.
Speaker 1: He turned it around, held it by the barrel, and
Speaker 1: broke the pilot's skull with it. In the darkness, he
Speaker 1: changed clothing for the second time that night, quickly confidently,
Speaker 1: his hand steady. In the darkness, he could barely make
Speaker 1: out the pilot's manifest The man's ship was Mozart's Lady,
Speaker 1: all right, outbound from Triton City for Mars. Well, Bartalk
Speaker 1: thought he wouldn't go to Mars. Assuming they learned what
Speaker 1: ship he had boarded, they would be guarding the inner
Speaker 1: orbits too closely. He would take Mozart's Lady daringly outward,
Speaker 1: beyond Neptune's orbit. Naturally, the ship wouldn't have interstellar drive,
Speaker 1: but as yet, Bartalk wasn't going interstellar. You couldn't have
Speaker 1: everything you couldn't expect a starship on Triton, could you.
Speaker 1: So Bartalk would take Mozart's Lady outward to Pluto's orbit
Speaker 1: and wait. From the amount of hand luggage taken aboard,
Speaker 1: Mozart's Lady would be carrying quite a number of passengers.
Speaker 1: If that number were reduced drastically reduced, the food, water,
Speaker 1: and air aboard would last for many months until the
Speaker 1: fuss died down, until Bartak could bring Mozart's Lady, long
Speaker 1: since given up for lost, in for a landing on
Speaker 1: one of the inner planets. Now, he dragged the dead
Speaker 1: pilot's body into the complete darkness on the south side
Speaker 1: of the pilot barracks, wishing he could hide it better,
Speaker 1: but knowing he didn't have the time or the means.
Speaker 1: Then he walked boldly across the tarmac, wearing a pilot's uniform,
Speaker 1: toward Mozart's Lady. Fifteen minutes later, house Bartok watched with
Speaker 1: amazement while a hundred pretty young women boarded the ship.
Speaker 1: Of all the things that had happened since his escape,
Speaker 1: this came closest to unnerving him, for it was the
Speaker 1: totally unexpected Bartalk shrugged chain smoked three cigarettes while the
Speaker 1: women boarded slowly, taking last minute looks at dark triton,
Speaker 1: the spaceport, the cordon of guards, the arc lights. Bartalk
Speaker 1: cursed impotently. Seconds were precious now the pilot's body might
Speaker 1: be found if it were. At last, the port clang
Speaker 1: shut and the ground crew tromped away. Since even an
Speaker 1: over age ship like Mozart's Lady was close to ninety
Speaker 1: percent automatic, there was no crew, only the pilot, who
Speaker 1: was Bartalk, and the passengers. Bartalk was about to set
Speaker 1: the controls for blast off when he heard footsteps clomp
Speaker 1: clamping down the companionway. He toyed with the idea of
Speaker 1: locking the door, then realized that would arouse suspicion a
Speaker 1: square woman's face over a plump, middle aged figure. I'm
Speaker 1: missus Moriarty, pilot. I have one hundred young girls aboard.
Speaker 1: We'll have no nonsense, no, sir, I mean no, ma'am.
Speaker 1: Well make sure, yes, ma'am, and I want an easy
Speaker 1: trip without fuss or incidents for half of our girls.
Speaker 1: It's the second time in space, the first being when
Speaker 1: they came out here. You understand, yes, ma'am. What happened
Speaker 1: to the pilot who took us out uh pressed into
Speaker 1: service last week on a Mercury run. I'm surprised the
Speaker 1: control board didn't tell you. They didn't. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: You do your job and that's all. Yes, ma'am, house
Speaker 1: Bartok said, just my job. A few moments later, Mozart's
Speaker 1: lady blasted off stop. Hey wait, pitch Plend Hardesty bawled
Speaker 1: at the top of his voice. But it didn't do
Speaker 1: any good good. The police rushed up behind Pitchblend, not
Speaker 1: daring to fire. Moments before they had found the dead
Speaker 1: pilot's body. They knew at once what it meant. Of course,
Speaker 1: they had not been more than a minute too late.
Speaker 1: Call Central Control on Neptune, a police officer said, we'll
Speaker 1: send a cruiser after them. Won't do any good. Pitchblend Hardest,
Speaker 1: he groaned, What are you talking about, fellow? Unless the
Speaker 1: cruise is brand new on Neptune, don't be silly. Newest
Speaker 1: one we've got is ten years old, like I said,
Speaker 1: won't do any good. I work that ship over, mister.
Speaker 1: I know what she's like inside. She may look like
Speaker 1: an overaged tub on the outside, but don't let that
Speaker 1: fool you. She's got power, mister. She's probably the fastest
Speaker 1: thing this side of the Jovian moons, except for those
Speaker 1: experimental one man rocket bombs down at Neptune Station. But
Speaker 1: chasing a big tub in a one man's space bound
Speaker 1: coffin here, pitch Blend used the vernacular for the tiny
Speaker 1: one man experimental ships. Ain't got to do anybody any good.
Speaker 1: Best thing you can do is track Mozart's lady by
Speaker 1: radar and hope she'll head sunward. Then they could intercept
Speaker 1: her close in. But Mozart's lady did not head sunward.
Speaker 1: Radar tracking confirmed this. Moments later. Mozart's lady was outward
Speaker 1: bound for Pluto's orbit, and with Pluto and Neptune currently
Speaker 1: in conjunction, that could even mean a landing, although the
Speaker 1: police decided that wasn't likely. There were no settlements on Pluto.
Speaker 1: Pluto was too weird. For the strangest reason, in a
Speaker 1: solar system and a galaxy of wonders, Pluto was quite uninhabitable.
Speaker 1: More likely Mozart's lady would follow Pluto's orbit around than
Speaker 1: make a dash sunward. Our officer threw up his hands.
Speaker 1: I give up, He said, she's heading for Pluto's or
Speaker 1: ball right call Neptune Station. Neptune Station, Sir, you bet
Speaker 1: this job's too big for me. The brass will want
Speaker 1: to handle it. Seconds later, subspace crackled with energy as
Speaker 1: the call was put through from Triton City to Neptune Station.
Speaker 1: Whatever else history would write about him, it would certainly
Speaker 1: call Johnny Mayhem the strangest and literally most death defying
Speaker 1: test pilot in history. Of course. Testing the sleek experimental
Speaker 1: beauties out of Neptune Station and elsewhere wasn't Mayhem's chief occupation.
Speaker 1: He was, in a phrase, a troubleshooter for the Galactic League.
Speaker 1: Whenever he had a spare few weeks having completed an
Speaker 1: assignment ahead of schedule in his latest of bodies, he
Speaker 1: was likely to turn up at some testing station or
Speaker 1: other and volunteer for work. He was never turned down,
Speaker 1: although the Galactic League didn't approve. Mayhem was probably the
Speaker 1: Galaxy's best pilot, with incredible reflexes and an utter indifference
Speaker 1: toward death. For the past two weeks, having completed what
Speaker 1: turned out to be an easier than expected assignment on Neptune,
Speaker 1: he had been piloting the space bound coffins out of
Speaker 1: Neptune Station and with very satisfactory experimental results. A few
Speaker 1: minutes ago, he had been called into the station director's office,
Speaker 1: but when he entered, he was surprised to see the
Speaker 1: Galactic League Firstman of Neptune waiting for him. Surprised, Eh,
Speaker 1: the Firstman demanded, I'll bet you want me to quit testifying.
Speaker 1: Mayhem said, with a smile, which clearer than words, told
Speaker 1: the First Man his advice would be rejected. The First
Speaker 1: Man smiled too, Why no, Mayhem, As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I want you to take one of the coffins into
Speaker 1: deep space. Maybe something's wrong with my hearing. Mayhem said, no,
Speaker 1: you heard it right. Of course, it's up to you.
Speaker 1: Everything you do, you volunteer. Let's hear it, Firstman. So
Speaker 1: the First Man of Neptune told Johnny Mayhem about Mozart's lady,
Speaker 1: which six hours ago had left Triton for Pluto's Orbits
Speaker 1: with an eccentric, wealthy widow, a hundred girls, and a
Speaker 1: desperate escaped killer. The only thing we have out here
Speaker 1: fast enough to overtake them, Mayhem, is the one man Coffins,
Speaker 1: the only man we have who can fly them is
Speaker 1: you What do you say? Mayhem's answer was a question,
Speaker 1: but the question didn't really require an answer. Mayhem asked,
Speaker 1: what are we waiting for? The first man grinned he
Speaker 1: had expected such an answer. Of course, the whole galaxy,
Speaker 1: let alone the Solar System, knew the Mayhem legend. Every
Speaker 1: world which had an Earthman population and a Galactic League post,
Speaker 1: however small, had a body in cold storage waiting for
Speaker 1: Johnny Mayhem if his services were required. But of course
Speaker 1: no one knew precisely when mayhem services might be required.
Speaker 1: No one knew exactly under what circumstances the Galactic League Council,
Speaker 1: operating from the hub of the galaxy, might summon Mayhem,
Speaker 1: and only a very few people, including those at the
Speaker 1: Hub and the Galactic League firstmen on civilized worlds and
Speaker 1: observers on primitive worlds, knew the precise mechanics of Mayhem's coming.
Speaker 1: Johnny Mayhem, a bodyless sentience Mayhem Johnny Marlowe then, who
Speaker 1: had been chased from Earth, a pariah and a criminal
Speaker 1: eight years ago, and who had been mortally wounded on
Speaker 1: a wild planet deep within the Sagittarian swarm, whose life
Speaker 1: had been saved after a fashion by the white magic
Speaker 1: of that planet. Mayhem doomed now to possible immortality as
Speaker 1: a bodyless sentience and Ilan, which could occupy and activate
Speaker 1: a corpse if it had been frozen properly. And Ilan
Speaker 1: doomed to wander eternally because it could not remain in
Speaker 1: one body for more than a month without body, and
Speaker 1: Ilan perishing. Mayhem, who had dedicated his strange, lonely life
Speaker 1: to the service of the Galactic League because a normal
Speaker 1: life and normal social relations were not possible for him.
Speaker 1: One thing, Mayhem, the first man said, Now, on Neptune,
Speaker 1: how much longer have you in that body of yours? Five?
Speaker 1: Possibly six? That doesn't give you much time. If you're
Speaker 1: caught out there when your month is up, I won't
Speaker 1: be We're wasting time talking about it. It would mean
Speaker 1: your death. Then let's get started. The first man stared
Speaker 1: at him levely. You're a brave man, Mayhem. Let's say
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid to die. I've been a living dead
Speaker 1: man for eight years. Come on one of this so
Speaker 1: called coffins. A tiny one man ship barely big enough
Speaker 1: for a prone man. Food concentrates and water was already
Speaker 1: waiting at the station spacefield ten minutes after hearing about
Speaker 1: Mozart's Lady. Without fanfare, Mayhem blasted off in pursuit, maintaining
Speaker 1: top speed all the way. House, Bartalk brought Mozart's Lady
Speaker 1: across almost two billion miles of space from Neptune's to
Speaker 1: Pluto's orbit in three days. He was delighted with the speed.
Speaker 1: It would have taken the average space tub ten days
Speaker 1: to two weeks, and since as far as Bartok knew,
Speaker 1: there were nothing but average space tubs on Neptune, that
Speaker 1: gave him a considerable head start. It was Jane Cummings,
Speaker 1: first violin, who discovered Bartok's identity. Bartok was studying the
Speaker 1: star map at the time and considered himself safe from
Speaker 1: discovery because he kept the control door of Mozart's Lady locked. However,
Speaker 1: Jane Cummings had established something of a liaison with the
Speaker 1: pilot outward bound from Earth and Mars, so she had
Speaker 1: been given a spare key, which he'd kept secretly all
Speaker 1: the time. The symphony was on Triton, now curious about
Speaker 1: the new pilot for the same reason that the miners
Speaker 1: on Triton had been curious about the symphony. Jane made
Speaker 1: her way forward, inserted her key in the lock, and
Speaker 1: pushed open the control door. Hello, there, she said, house
Speaker 1: Bartalk whirled. The turning of a key in the lock
Speaker 1: had so unnerved him. It was the last thing he
Speaker 1: expected that he forgot to shut off the star map.
Speaker 1: Its tell tale evidence glowed on the wall over his head.
Speaker 1: What do you want, he managed to ask, politely, Oh,
Speaker 1: just to say hello. You already said it. Jane Cummings pouted.
Speaker 1: You needn't bite my head off. What's your name? Mind's Jane?
Speaker 1: And I play the violin. It wouldn't hurt you to
Speaker 1: be polite. Bartok nodded, deciding that a little small talk
Speaker 1: wouldn't hurt if he kept the girl from becoming suspicious.
Speaker 1: That was suddenly important. If this girl had a key
Speaker 1: to the control room. For all he knew, there could
Speaker 1: be others my You have been hurrying, Jane said, I
Speaker 1: could tell by the acceleration you must be trying to
Speaker 1: break the speed records or something. I'll bet we're almost
Speaker 1: too earth. Her voice trailed off and her mouth hung open.
Speaker 1: At first, Bartok didn't know what was the matter. Then
Speaker 1: he saw where she was staring the star map. We
Speaker 1: are not heading for Earth, she cried. Bartok walked toward her.
Speaker 1: Give me that key, he said, you're going to have
Speaker 1: to stay here with me. Give me that key. Jane
Speaker 1: backed away. You you couldn't be our pilot if you
Speaker 1: were the key. I don't want to hurt you. Bartok lunged.
Speaker 1: Jane turned and ran, slamming the door behind her. It
Speaker 1: clanged and echoed. The echo didn't stop Bartalk, on the
Speaker 1: point of opening the door and sprinting down the companionway
Speaker 1: after her stopped. It wasn't the echo of metal slamming
Speaker 1: against metal. It was the radar warning either Mozart's Lady
Speaker 1: was within dangerous proximity of a meteor or a ship
Speaker 1: was following them. Bartalk ran to the radar screen. The
Speaker 1: pip was unmistakable. A ship was following them, a ship
Speaker 1: as fast or faster than Mozart's lady. Cursing, Bartalk did
Speaker 1: things with the controls. Mozart's Lady, already straining, increased its
Speaker 1: speed acceleration flung Bartalk back in the pilot's chair. Pluto
Speaker 1: loomed dead ahead. Johnny Mayhem knew at what precise moment
Speaker 1: he had been discovered. For suddenly the speed of Mozart's
Speaker 1: Lady increased. Since this had occurred an hour and a
Speaker 1: half after Mayhem had first got a clear pip of
Speaker 1: the bigger ship on his radar, it meant he'd been
Speaker 1: spotted prone. With his hand stretched forward in the coffin
Speaker 1: like experimental ship, Mayhem worked the controls exactly, matching speed
Speaker 1: with Mozart's Lady. He tried to put himself in the
Speaker 1: position of the escaped convict. What would he do. His
Speaker 1: best bet would be to swing in close around Pluto
Speaker 1: as close as he dared, then on the dark side
Speaker 1: of the planet, to change his orbit abruptly and come
Speaker 1: loose of its gravitational field in a new direction. It
Speaker 1: was a dangerous maneuver, but since the escaped convict now
Speaker 1: knew for sure that the tiny ship could match the
Speaker 1: speed of the Mozart's Lady, it was his only hope.
Speaker 1: The danger was grave. Even a first rate pilot would
Speaker 1: try it only as a last resort, for the gravitational
Speaker 1: pull of Pluto might upset Mozart's Lady's orbit. If that happened,
Speaker 1: the best the convict could hope for was an emergency
Speaker 1: landing more likely a death crash would result. Seconds later,
Speaker 1: Mayhem's thinking was confirmed. Mozart's lady executed a sharp turn
Speaker 1: in space and disappeared behind the white bulk of Pluto.
Speaker 1: Mayhem swore and followed, he's trying to kill us all.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know how to pilot a ship. We're helpless, helpless,
Speaker 1: do something, Missus Moriarty. Now, girls, whatever happens, you must
Speaker 1: keep calm. We can only assume that Jane is right
Speaker 1: about what she saw, But since none of us can
Speaker 1: pilot a spaceship, we'll have to bide our time. Bide
Speaker 1: our time. We're all as good as dead. One of
Speaker 1: the girls began screaming. Missus Moriarty slapped her. I'm sorry, dear,
Speaker 1: I had to hit you. Your behavior bordered on the hysterical,
Speaker 1: and if we become hysterical, we are lost, lost. Do
Speaker 1: you understand, yes, I'm good. Then we wait and see
Speaker 1: what happens. What was happening was an attempt at what
Speaker 1: test Pilot's term planet swinging. Moving in the direction of
Speaker 1: Pluto's orbit, Mozart's lady swung in very close behind the planet. Then,
Speaker 1: as the rotation of Pluto on its axis hurled it
Speaker 1: forth again as a slingshot hurls a pellet. Mozart's Lady's
Speaker 1: rockets would alter the expected direction of flight. Unless a
Speaker 1: pursuing ship followed exactly the same maneuver, it would be
Speaker 1: flung off into space at top speed in the wrong direction.
Speaker 1: It might be hours before the first ship's trail could
Speaker 1: be picked up again. If ever, House Bartalk, aware of
Speaker 1: all this, and one other factor, sat sweating it out
Speaker 1: at the controls. The one other factor was closeness to Pluto.
Speaker 1: For if you got too close and the difference was
Speaker 1: only a matter of miles covered in an elapsed time
Speaker 1: of milliseconds, Pluto might drag you into a landing orbit.
Speaker 1: If that happened, traveling at tremendous speed, there'd be the
Speaker 1: double danger of overheating in the planet's atmosphere and coming
Speaker 1: down too hard. Either way, the results could be fatal.
Speaker 1: His hand sweating, Bartalk struggled with the controls. Now Already
Speaker 1: he could see Pluto bulking its night side, black and
Speaker 1: mysterious in the viewport. Now he could hear the faint,
Speaker 1: shrill scream of its atmosphere. Now, trying to time it perfectly,
Speaker 1: he slammed on full power, a fraction of a millisecond
Speaker 1: too late. Mozart's Lady stood for an instant on its tail,
Speaker 1: shuddering as if it were going to come apart and
Speaker 1: rain meteoric dust over Pluto's surface. That had happened too
Speaker 1: in such a maneuver, but it didn't happen now. Instead,
Speaker 1: Mozart's Lady went into a landing orbit, but its speed
Speaker 1: was still terrific and lowering. It whizzed twice around Pluto's
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand miles circumference in twenty minutes. Atmosphere screamed and
Speaker 1: the heat siren shrilled and a cursing house. Bartalk applied
Speaker 1: the breaking rockets as fast as he could. Pluto's surface
Speaker 1: blurred in the viewport, coming closer at dizzying speed. Bartalk
Speaker 1: stood Mozart's Lady on its tail a second time, this
Speaker 1: time on purpose. The ship shuddered and struck Pluto. Bartalk
Speaker 1: blacked out when Mayhem's radar screen informed him that Mozart's
Speaker 1: Lady had failed to break free of Pluto's field of gravity.
Speaker 1: Mayhem immediately went to work. First, he allowed the tiny
Speaker 1: Scout ship to complete its planet swing successfully. Then he
Speaker 1: slowed down, turned around in deep space, and came back,
Speaker 1: scanning Pluto with radar scopes and telescope until he located
Speaker 1: the bigger ship. That might have taken hours or days ordinarily,
Speaker 1: but having seen Mozart's Lady go in and having recorded
Speaker 1: its position via radar, Mayhem had a pretty good idea
Speaker 1: as to the landing orbit it would follow. It took
Speaker 1: him three quarters of an hour to locate the bigger ship.
Speaker 1: When he finally had located it, he brought it into
Speaker 1: close up with the more powerful of the two telescopes.
Speaker 1: Aboard the scout, Mozart's Lady lay on its side in
Speaker 1: a snow tundra. It had been damaged, but not severely.
Speaker 1: Part of the visible side was caved in, but the
Speaker 1: ship had not fallen apart. Still, chances were that without
Speaker 1: extensive repairs, it would not be able to leave Pluto.
Speaker 1: There was no way Mayhem knew of making extensive repairs
Speaker 1: on Pluto. Mozart's Lady was there to stay. The safe
Speaker 1: thing to do would be to inform Neptune and wait
Speaker 1: in space until the police cruisers came for House Bartalk.
Speaker 1: The alternative was to planetfall near Mozart's lady take the
Speaker 1: convict into custody and then notify Neptune. If Bartalk were alone,
Speaker 1: the choice would have been an easy one. But Bartalk
Speaker 1: was not alone. He had a hundred girls with him.
Speaker 1: He was desperate. He might try anything. Mayhem had to
Speaker 1: go down after him. The trouble was, though, that of
Speaker 1: all the worlds in the galaxy, not merely in Soul System,
Speaker 1: Pluto was the one most dangerous to Johnny Mayhem. He
Speaker 1: had been pursuing house Bartalk for three days, which meant
Speaker 1: he had two days left before it was imperative that
Speaker 1: he leave his current body. This would mean notifying the
Speaker 1: hub of the galaxy by subspace radio to pull out
Speaker 1: his land. But Pluto's heavy side layer was the strongest
Speaker 1: in the Solar System, so strong that subspace radio couldn't
Speaker 1: penetrate it. And that was not the only thing wrong
Speaker 1: with Pluto. It was, in fact an incredible anomaly of
Speaker 1: a world almost four billion miles from the Sun. At
Speaker 1: its widest swing, it still was not too cold to
Speaker 1: support life. Apparently, radioactive heat in its core kept it warm.
Speaker 1: It even had an Earth type atmosphere, although the oxygen
Speaker 1: content was somewhat too rich an apt to make you giddy,
Speaker 1: And it was a slow world. Time moved slowly on Pluto,
Speaker 1: too slowly when you first landed. According to the few
Speaker 1: explorers who had attempted it, the native fauna seemed like statues.
Speaker 1: Their movement was too slow for the eye to register.
Speaker 1: That was lucky for the fauna tended to be enormous
Speaker 1: and deadly. But after a while, how long a while
Speaker 1: Mayhem didn't know, the fauna subjectively seemed to speed up.
Speaker 1: The animals commenced, moving slowly, then a bit faster, then normally.
Speaker 1: That Mayhem knew was entirely subjective. The animals of Pluto
Speaker 1: were not changing their rate of living. The visitor to
Speaker 1: Pluto was slowing down to match their laggard pace. Two days,
Speaker 1: thought Mayhem, that was all he had, and hours after
Speaker 1: he landed he'd start to slow down. There was absolutely
Speaker 1: no way of telling how much time had elapsed once
Speaker 1: that happened. For the only clocks that did not go
Speaker 1: haywire on Pluto were spring wine clocks, and there hadn't
Speaker 1: been a spring wine clock in the Solar system for
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty years. Result on Pluto, Mayhem would
Speaker 1: slow down. Once he reached Pluto's normal time rate, it
Speaker 1: might take him, say, ten minutes to run top speed
Speaker 1: from point A to point B, fifteen yards apart. Subjectively,
Speaker 1: a split second of time would have gone by in
Speaker 1: that period. Two days would seem like less than an hour,
Speaker 1: and Mayhem would have no way of judging how much less.
Speaker 1: If he didn't get off Pluto in two days, he
Speaker 1: would die. If he didn't land house, Bartalk growing desperate
Speaker 1: and trying to scare him off, or trying to keep
Speaker 1: control of the hundred girls while he made a desperate
Speaker 1: and probably feudal attempt to repair the damaged Mozart's Lady
Speaker 1: might become violent. Mayhem called Neptune and said Bartalk crash
Speaker 1: landed on Pluto geographical coordinates north latitude thirty three degrees
Speaker 1: four minutes west longitude eighteen degrees. Even I'm going down,
Speaker 1: That's all. He didn't wait for an answer. He brought
Speaker 1: the space bound coffin down a scant three miles from
Speaker 1: Mozart's Lady. Here, though, the tundra of Pluto was buckled
Speaker 1: and convoluted, so that two low, jagged ranges of snowclad
Speaker 1: hill separated the ships again. Mayhem didn't wait. He went outside,
Speaker 1: took a breath of near freezing air, and stalked up
Speaker 1: the first range of hills. He carried a blaster buckled
Speaker 1: to his belt. When he saw the scout ship come down,
Speaker 1: Bartok didn't wait either. He might have waited had he
Speaker 1: known anything about what Pluto did to the time since,
Speaker 1: but he did not know. He only knew after a
Speaker 1: quick inspection that the controls of Mozart's Lady had been
Speaker 1: so badly damaged that repair was impossible. He knew too
Speaker 1: that the Scout ship had reported his whereabouts. He had,
Speaker 1: on regaining consciousness, been in time to intercept the radio message. True,
Speaker 1: it would take any other Neptune station ship close to
Speaker 1: two weeks to reach Pluto, so Bartalk had some temporal leeway.
Speaker 1: But obviously whoever was pursuing him in the one man
Speaker 1: ship had not come down just to sit and wait.
Speaker 1: He was out there in the snow somewhere well. Bartalk
Speaker 1: would go out too, but somehow managed to elude his
Speaker 1: pursuer to get behind him, reach the scout ship and
Speaker 1: blast off in it, and in the event that anything
Speaker 1: went wrong he would have a hostage. He went to
Speaker 1: rearships to select one went with his desperation, shackled by
Speaker 1: an iron nerve and a blaster in his hand. Very lucky,
Speaker 1: Matilda Moriarty was saying, trying to keep the despair from
Speaker 1: her voice. We have some cuts and bruises, but no
Speaker 1: serious casualties. Why we might have all been killed. Lucky,
Speaker 1: she says, We're marooned here, marooned with a killer. Before
Speaker 1: the widow Moriarty could defend her choice of words, if
Speaker 1: she was going to defend them, House Bartalk came into
Speaker 1: the rear lounge where the entire symphony and its chaperone
Speaker 1: was located. They would have locked the door, of course,
Speaker 1: they had locked it ever since they had learned who
Speaker 1: Bartalk was. But the door buckled and broken had been
Speaker 1: one of the casualties of the crash. Landing you, Bartok said,
Speaker 1: he meant, Jane Cummings me, yes, you, We're going outside. Outside,
Speaker 1: That's what I said. Let's get a Jane Cummings didn't move.
Speaker 1: The widow Moriarty came between her and Bartalk. If you
Speaker 1: must take anyone, take me, she said, bravely. The girl
Speaker 1: still the widow Moriarty didn't move. House Bartok bawled his
Speaker 1: fist and hit her. Three of the girls caught her
Speaker 1: as she fell. None of them tried to do anything
Speaker 1: about Bartok, who had leveled his blaster at Jane Cummings. Trembling,
Speaker 1: she went down the companionway with him. A fierce cold
Speaker 1: wind blew. As they opened the airlocked door. It looked
Speaker 1: like a sea serpent floundering in the snow, only it
Speaker 1: was caught in the act of floundering. Like an excellent
Speaker 1: candid shot of a sea serpent floundering in snow, its
Speaker 1: movements were too slow for Mayhem's eyes to register, which
Speaker 1: meant he realized gratefully that he hadn't begun to slow
Speaker 1: down yet. He had to be careful, though if he
Speaker 1: were Bartok, he would make immediately for the scout ship.
Speaker 1: It would be his only hope. Realizing this, Mayhem had
Speaker 1: gone through deep snow for what he judged to be
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes until he had reached a spine of rock
Speaker 1: protruding from the snow. Then he had doubled back, now
Speaker 1: leaving no footprints along the spine. He was waiting in
Speaker 1: the first low range of hills, not four hundred yards
Speaker 1: from the scout ship, his blaster ready. When Bartok prowled
Speaker 1: into view, Mayhem would shout a warning. If Bartok didn't
Speaker 1: hate it, Mayhem would shoot him dead. It seemed like
Speaker 1: an air tight plan, and it would have been, except
Speaker 1: for two things. First, Bartok had a hostage, and second,
Speaker 1: Pluto time was beginning to act on Mayhem. He realized
Speaker 1: this when he looked at the Sea serpent again. The
Speaker 1: long neck moved with agonizing slowness. The great gray green
Speaker 1: bulk of the monster, sixty feet long, shifted slowly, barely
Speaker 1: perceptibly in the snow mountains of powdery snow, moved and settled.
Speaker 1: The spade shaped head pointed at Mayhem. The tongue protruded slowly,
Speaker 1: hung suspended, forked and hideous. Then slowly withdrew. The neck
Speaker 1: moved again, ten feet long, sinuous, and faster, faster, not really,
Speaker 1: Mayhem was slowing down. Then he saw Bartalk and the girl.
Speaker 1: They were close together. Bartalk held her arm, walking toward
Speaker 1: the scout ship. They were too far away and too
Speaker 1: close together for Mayhem to fire. Bartalk would know this
Speaker 1: and wouldn't heed any warning, so Mayhem didn't give any warning.
Speaker 1: He left the spine of rock and rushed down through
Speaker 1: the snow toward the space bound coffin. A low rumble
Speaker 1: of sound broke the absolute stillness. It was the monster,
Speaker 1: and now that his own hearing had slowed down, Mayhem
Speaker 1: was able to hear the slower cycles of sound. How
Speaker 1: much time had really passed? He didn't know how much
Speaker 1: time did he have left before death came swiftly and suddenly,
Speaker 1: because he had been too long in his temporary body,
Speaker 1: He didn't know that either. He sprinted toward the scout ship,
Speaker 1: at least it felt like he was sprinting. He didn't
Speaker 1: know how fast he was really moving. But the sea
Speaker 1: serpent creature was coming up behind him faster, no place
Speaker 1: near what would have been its normal apparent speed, but faster. Mayhem,
Speaker 1: his breath coming raggedly through his mouth, ran as fast
Speaker 1: as was feasible. So did Bartok and the girl. It
Speaker 1: was Bartok, spotting Mayhem on the run, who fired first.
Speaker 1: Mayhem fell prone as the raw zing of energy ripped past.
Speaker 1: The sea serpentlike creature behind him, bellowed and reared. It
Speaker 1: didn't look like a sea serpent any longer. It looked
Speaker 1: like a dinosaur with huge, solid rear limbs, small forelimbs,
Speaker 1: and a great head with an enormous jaw and speed.
Speaker 1: Now it could really move. Subjectively time seemed normal to Mayhem.
Speaker 1: Your only basis was subjective time always seemed normal. But
Speaker 1: Mayhem knew as he got up and ran again that
Speaker 1: he was now moving slower than the minute hand on
Speaker 1: a clock, slower as objective time, as measured in the
Speaker 1: Solar system at large sped by. He tripped as the
Speaker 1: creature came behind him. The only thing he could do
Speaker 1: was prop up on an elbow in the snow and fire.
Speaker 1: Raw energy ripped off the two tiny forelimbs, but the
Speaker 1: creature didn't falter. It rushed by Mayhem, almost crushing him
Speaker 1: with the hind limbs, each of which must have weighed
Speaker 1: a couple of tons. It lumbered toward Bartok and Jane Cummings.
Speaker 1: Turning and starting to get up. Mayhem fired again. His
Speaker 1: blaster jammed, then the bulk of the monster cut off
Speaker 1: his view of Bartok and the girl and the Scout ship.
Speaker 1: He heard the girl scream. He ran toward them. Jane
Speaker 1: Cummings had never been so close to death. She wanted
Speaker 1: to scream, she thought, all at once hysterically. She was
Speaker 1: a little girl again. If she screamed, maybe the terrible
Speaker 1: apparition would go away. But it did not go away.
Speaker 1: It reared up high, as high as a very tall tree,
Speaker 1: and its fangs were hideous. Bartok, who was also frightened,
Speaker 1: raised his blaster, fired and missed. Then for an instant
Speaker 1: Jane thought she saw someone running behind the monster. He
Speaker 1: had a blaster too, and he lifted it. When he fired,
Speaker 1: there was only a clicking sound. Then he fired again.
Speaker 1: Half the monster's bulk disappeared, and it collapsed in the snow.
Speaker 1: That was when Bartok shot the other man. Mayhem felt
Speaker 1: the stab of raw energy in his shoulder. He spun
Speaker 1: around and fell down, his senses whirling in a vortex
Speaker 1: of pain. Dimly he was aware of Bartok's boots crunching
Speaker 1: on the snow. They fired simultaneously. Bartalk missed and collapsed
Speaker 1: with a searing hole in his chest. He was dead
Speaker 1: before he hit the snow. The girl went to Mayhem,
Speaker 1: who who are you? Got to get you back to
Speaker 1: the ship, no time to talk. Hurry, but you can't
Speaker 1: walk like that. You're badly hurt. I'll bring help. Dangerous,
Speaker 1: I'll take you, he'd take her flirting with death, because
Speaker 1: for all he knew, his time on Pluto objectively had
Speaker 1: already totaled forty eight hours. If it did, he would
Speaker 1: never live to get off Pluto. Once his thirty days
Speaker 1: were up, he would die still. There might be danger
Speaker 1: from other animals between the scoutship and Mozart's Lady, and
Speaker 1: he couldn't let the girl go back alone. It was
Speaker 1: almost ludicrous, since she had to help him to his feet.
Speaker 1: He staggered along with her, knowing he would never make
Speaker 1: it to Mozart's Lady and back in time. But if
Speaker 1: he left her, she was probably doomed too. He'd sacrifice
Speaker 1: his life for hers. They went a hundred yards, Mayhem
Speaker 1: gripping the blaster and advancing by sheer effort of will.
Speaker 1: Then he smiled and began to laugh. Jane thought he
Speaker 1: was hysterical with pain, but he said, we're a pair
Speaker 1: of bright ones. The scout ship inside it was very small.
Speaker 1: They had to lie very close to each other, but
Speaker 1: they made it. They reached Mozart's Lady. Mayhem didn't wait
Speaker 1: to say goodbye. With what strength remained to him, he
Speaker 1: almost flung the girl from the scout ship. The pain
Speaker 1: in his shoulder was very bad, but that wasn't what
Speaker 1: worried him. What worried him was the roaring in his ears,
Speaker 1: the vertigo, the mental confusion. As his land drifted its
Speaker 1: thirty days up toward death, he saw the girl enter
Speaker 1: Mozart's Lady. He blasted off, and when the space bound
Speaker 1: coffin pierced Pluto's heavy side layer, he called the hub.
Speaker 1: The voice answered him as if it were miles away
Speaker 1: and not halfway across the galaxy. Good lord man, you
Speaker 1: had us worried. You have about ten seconds, ten seconds
Speaker 1: more and you would have been dead. Mayhem was too
Speaker 1: tired to care. Then he felt a wrenching pain, and
Speaker 1: all at once his Land floated, serene, peaceful in limbo.
Speaker 1: He had been plucked from the dying body, barely in
Speaker 1: time to fight mankind's lone battle against the stars again
Speaker 1: wherever he was needed, out beyond Pluto forever. It wasn't impossible,
Speaker 1: the end of world beyond Pluto,